Some long-time donors of The Salvation Army are withdrawing support due to a woke initiative within the church and charitable organization, Newsweek reported.
A program entitled "Let's Talk About Racism" outlines the 156-year-old Christian church's alleged racial collusion and offers ways to fight racism by incorporating critical race theory, Newsweek said Wednesday.
Christian apologist and radio talk show host Greg Koukl recently wrote a letter to The Salvation Army informing them that he was terminating his monthly donations due to the initiative by The Salvation Army's International Social Justice Commission.
"There is a massive number of academics … who have raised the alarm against the aggressive indoctrination and, frankly, bullying of CRT — not to mention the racial essentialism inherent in the view, the false witness it bears against virtuous people, and the general destruction it continues to wreak on race relations in this country," Koukl wrote on Facebook. "CRT has set us back 50 years."
Newsweek said other Salvation Army donors were questioning The Salvation Army's entree into woke territory with some joining Koukl in stopping financial their support.
"I have been a faithful supporter of The Salvation Army for many years. My parents were supporters when they were alive, and they passed that down to me and my siblings. It was always a joy to see the red kettles around the holidays, as well as to hear of the efforts of TSA in helping the poor and those affected by disasters," Richard N. Nakano wrote in an email to author and Salvation Army critic Kenny Xu, Newsweek reported.
"Now I have noticed TSA has taken a turn to the far left politically, championing and virtue signaling such 'woke' policies as LGBTQ 'rights' and CRT. I am very disappointed the TSA has turned away from its Christ-centered mission, and is now embracing such un-Christian, world-centered views."
Americans last year gave more charitable donations to the United Way Worldwide and The Salvation Army than to any other nonprofit focusing on direct aid, The Associated Press reported. The Salvation Army raised $1.8 billion in 2020, an increase of 31% from the previous year.
Xu, in a commentary that was published on the conservative news website The Daily Signal last month, said the The Salvation Army initiative was "unhealthily mixing admirable human rights works with politically charged advocacy based in politics."
He said terms that "echo both radical 'anti-racism' jargon and divisive teachings of critical race theory" in the materials "divides people into two camps: the oppressors and the oppressed."
"In some aspects, the materials are indistinguishable from the 'anti-racist' programs of any multinational corporation, or the expounding of critical race theory at a major university," wrote Xu, noting that "Let's Talk About Racism" accuses white Salvationists of being unable or unwilling to acknowledge their racism.
The Salvation Army issued a Thanksgiving Day statement responding to "false claims" about racism.
"Recently some individuals and groups have attempted to mislabel our organization to serve their own agenda(s)," the statement read. "They have made outrageous claims that we believe our donors should apologize for their own racism, that The Salvation Army believes America is an inherently racist society, and that our organization has abandoned its beliefs for one ideology or another.
"In fact, an online petition is asking supporters to ‘stand against the insertion of politically charged racial ideologies into The Salvation Army’s good work.'
"Those claims are false, and they distort the very goal of our work."
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